BBC's face of religion is a self-proclaimed atheist who claims God had a wife and Eve suffered from sexism

Looking for a presenter for a TV show about the Bible? The ideal candidate is an atheist who believes traditional interpretations of the book are sexist – according to BBC bosses, at least.

Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who has been given a primetime BBC slot, claims that Eve has been ‘unfairly maligned’ by ‘middle-aged bearded men’ and should not have been blamed for the Fall of Man.

And she argues that God had a wife – making him part of a ‘divine pair’.

Her controversial claims will be explored in BBC2 series The Bible’s Buried Secrets.

But some may raise eyebrows among viewers – including her suggestion that Eve was not the first woman in the Bible because the Garden of Eden did not belong in the original Old Testament.

The University of Exeter lecturer told Radio Times: ‘Eve, particularly in the Christian tradition, has been very unfairly maligned as the troublesome wife.’

But former MP Ann Widdecombe, who is a Roman Catholic, said: ‘I would guess that most other theologians will demolish her theory in three seconds flat.’

Dr Stavrakopoulou, who has a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford, has confirmed she does not believe in God.

She said: ‘I’m an atheist with a huge respect for religion.

'I see what I do as a branch of history like any other.’

Dr Stavrakopoulou's claims that God had a wife appeared to be backed up by her own research into the subject

In a recent article she wrote: 'Archaeological
evidence including inscriptions, figurines and ancient texts as well as
details in the Bible, indicate not just that he was one of several
worshipped in ancient Israel, but that he was also coupled with a
goddess. She was worshipped alongside him in his temple in Jerusalem.

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'I spent several
years specialising in the cultural and social contexts of the Bible and I
discovered that Yahweh, the God we have come to know, had to see off a
number of competitors to achieve his position as the one and only god of
the ancient Israelites.'

'The biblical texts name many of them: El,
Baal, Molek, Asherah. Despite Yahweh's assertion in the Ten
Commandments that "You shall have no other gods before me", it appears
these gods were worshipped alongside Him, and the Bible acknowledges
this.'

Claims: Dr Stavrakopoulou with a reconstruction of a biblical inscription

'Far more significant is the Bible's admission that the
goddess Asherah was worshipped in Yahweh's temple in Jerusalem. In the
Book Of Kings, we're told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the
temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her.

'In
fact, although the Bible condemns all of these practices, the biblical
texts suggest that goddess worship was a thriving feature of high-status
religion in Jerusalem. What, then, was her relationship to Yahweh?

'Ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed here reveal that she was a powerful fertility goddess.

''But
perhaps most significant of all, Asherah was also the wife of El, the
high god at Ugarit - a god who shares much in common with Yahweh.
Given the evidence within the Bible that she was worshipped in the
temple in Jerusalem, might she have played the role of a divine wife in
ancient Israel too?'